Credit Suisse Group’s Credit
Suisse First Boston unit may sell its Pershing trade-processing
operation, the second-biggest in the U.S., as the securities firm
tries to stem losses, the Wall Street Journal said, citing
unidentified people familiar with the situation.
Fidelity Investments, the Boston-based mutual fund and Bear
Stearns Cos. Inc., operator of the U.S.’s biggest trading firm,
are among those interested in bidding, the paper said. Pershing,
which had client assets of more than 500.1 billion Swiss francs
($341 billion) as of Sept. 30, processes about 10 percent of New
York Stock Exchange trades, the paper said. the unit may be worth
about $1 billion, the Journal said, citing analysts.
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CSFB Chief Executive John Mack must be certain he’s not
putting the securities firm’s own equity operations at a
disadvantage when he decides whether to sell Pershing, Brad Hintz,
an analyst at the Sanford C. Bernstein unit of Alliance Capital
Management Holding LP, told the Journal.
Profit margins in trade processing have been squeezed by new
entrants to this market, the paper said. Pershing processed
121,000 shares a day on average in the third quarter compared with
135,000 in the year-ago period, the Journal said.
“We don’t comment on market rumors,” CSFB spokeswoman
Victoria Harman told Bloomberg News.
Bloomberg News
